About Me

Known principally for his weekly political columns and his commentaries on radio and television, Chris Trotter has spent most of his adult life either engaging in or writing about politics. He was the founding editor of The New Zealand Political Review (1992-2005) and in 2007 authored No Left Turn, a political history of New Zealand. Living in Auckland with his wife and daughter, Chris describes himself as an “Old New Zealander” – i.e. someone who remembers what the country was like before Rogernomics. He has created this blog as an archive for his published work and an outlet for his more elegiac musings. It takes its name from Bowalley Road, which runs past the North Otago farm where he spent the first nine years of his life. Enjoy.

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Friday, 14 December 2012

Judgements Written In Blood

By Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them: To the neoliberal political elite the victims of Pike River and the CTV Building Collapse are simply collateral damage in an unending struggle against those who attempt to restrict the free play of market forces.

TWO TRAGEDIES: a mine explosion and an engineering failure:
and neither needed to happen. That they did
happen is attributable, almost entirely, to the influence of neoliberalism –
the most pernicious political ideology to assail the modern world since
fascism.

In a sane country, Pike River and the collapse of the CTV
Building would already have brought the thirty-year-long reign of neoliberalism
to an end. But “sane” is no longer an adjective applicable to New Zealand
society. Sane societies learn from their mistakes. Have we? Do we still know
how?

I say “we”, but the
collective entity I’m actually referring to is the very thin layer of
politicians, business leaders, top civil servants and public relations experts
who “govern” the rest of us. For these people, neoliberalism has taken on the
unquestionable character of a religious faith and is, therefore, impervious to
evidential refutation.

And precisely because it is a faith, neither Pike River nor
the CTV Building Collapse will produce anything very much in the way of
meaningful change. The neoliberal elite fervently believe that “heavy-handed”
regulation is a more profound long-term threat to the public good than gassy mines
or badly designed buildings.

To this political class, the 29 Pike River miners and the
115 victims of the CTV Building Collapse are simply unfortunate casualties:
collateral damage in the never-ending war against those who would constrain the
free operation of market forces.

New Zealanders could take heart if there was even one major
political party that opposed without equivocation the neoliberal policies in
which their country is enmeshed. But, think about it: when was the last time
you heard a spokesperson for the Labour Party not only condemn the policies and
plans of the National-led Government, but also promise that, immediately upon
taking office, Labour will repeal the legislation giving effect to those plans
and policies?

Consider, for example, the formation of the Ministry of
Business, Innovation and Employment (MoBIE). This brain-dead bureaucratic
monstrosity is the brain-child of National Cabinet Minister, Steven Joyce, and
is the very last organisational model a government would adopt if it was
genuinely concerned about the health and safety of workers in dangerous
industries like mining and forestry. The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the
Pike River Disaster, itself, specifically recommended the establishment of a
stand-alone health and safety agency. The Prime Minister demurred.

A Tragedy Waiting To Happen: The Pike River Coal Company failed comprehensively to ensure the safety of its workforce. Under neoliberalism it is always Money First - People Second.

Now it’s true that Labour opposed the formation of MoBIE and
voted against the legislation setting it up, but has anyone heard them promise
to instantly dismantle it upon taking office? Have they unequivocally endorsed
the Royal Commission’s recommendation of a stand-alone agency or, failing that,
pledged to rebuild the full regulatory capacity of the Department of Labour?

Come to think of it, has Labour ever honestly acknowledged
its responsibility for unleashing the fast-talking, hands-off, corner-cutting
wide-boys whose feverish appetite for quick and excessive profit-taking led
directly to jerry-built tragedies-in-waiting like the CTV building?

Now, to be fair, Labour’s organisational wing has attempted to acknowledge the party’s role
in unleashing the neoliberal ideology on an unsuspecting New Zealand. In the
first chapter of the initial draft of the party’s new policy “platform” its
authors state: “[T]he Fourth Labour Government’s programme of extensive
economic reform was in breach of Labour’s traditions and values. Without any
specific mandate this Labour government ….. gave up a large degree of
regulatory control in favour of unrestrained market forces.”

That draft has yet to be ratified, and I must confess to
being more than a little sceptical of ever hearing David Shearer or David
Parker deliver so unequivocal a repudiation of Labour’s neoliberal past. Not
while Mr Shearer’s predecessor, Phil Goff, continues to influence Labour’s
economic and social policy-making. It was, after all, Mr Goff who told Radio
New Zealand’s political editor, Brent Edwards, in July 2009: “a
well-functioning market system is the most effective and efficient way of
organising an economy.”

The tragedies of Pike River and Christchurch’s CTV Building
are judgements written in blood against neoliberalism. Grim testimonials to the
moral delinquency of a system that puts profit and convenience ahead of
human-beings and safety.

It’s now up to us, while democracy endures in this country,
to dig down to the roots of our national malaise. To wrench out the neoliberal
ivy that is relentlessly strangling our institutions – and killing our fellow
citizens.

This essay was
originally published in The Waikato Times, The Taranaki Daily News, The
Timaru Herald, The Otago Daily Times and The Greymouth Star.

7 comments:

You are 100% on target here Chris. The meme that underwrote this neoliberal renaissance was the spectacular epiphany (delusional) the hights of human civilization was completely explicable by selfishness something Ritchard Dawkins and others still maintain. Interestingly, that bette noir of progressive thinking, the old man of sociobiology E. O. Wilson thinks otherwise.

Except it's not that simple, is it? It can't be just neoliberalism, or these things wouldn't have happened before neoliberalism, or wouldn't happen in countries that haven't embraced it. It's not even capitalism, or these things wouldn't happen in socialist countries. But they do - bigger things, worse things event. Entire cities built not to code in seismic areas, crumbling like biscuits when the shake comes. Appalling death tolls in the name of work, energy, progress. I am especially familiar with the ones in my own country. Shall we talk about Vajont? Five villages wiped out by a displacement wave jumping over a perfectly built dam. 2,000 dead. A man-made disaster so that the country could have cheap hydroelectricity. Yet ‘neoliberalism’ didn’t even exist back then. And tempting as it is to blame deregulation for things, there are calculations about the human cost of having jobs, affordable housing and infrastructure that aren’t unique to neoliberal countries or to our time.

But, if it makes the slightest sense, the mistakes and blunders of the past were also surprises.

I don’t know. Were they? Italy has strong regulations and strong unions, yet we kill over one thousand of our workers every year and the criminally negligent are seldom punished. Individually some of those deaths may be surprises but since the overall death toll has remained remarkably constant over the years we can only conclude that it’s something that our society is okay with. That it’s the cost of having jobs and prosperity in a country that historically has always been poor. Neoliberalism formalises this calculation. It says you can’t have both your jobs and your safety if you want to remain competitive. But the calculation isn’t unique to it.

It's only neoliberalism that says: "Oh,I'm sorry, but we just can't do anything to improve the situation here. In fact, we're going to knock it all down."

If there is one thing that is characteristic of neoliberalism – or perhaps more accurately to the present moment – is the response to disasters. When the Friuli earthquake hit in the mid-seventies, the Italian government paid for the people who had been displaced to spend the summer on the Adriatic coast whilst the initial remedial work was carried out. The towns were rebuilt as model towns, and their people had a say in how they turned out. I don’t know that such things would be even conceivable nowadays. Nowadays, the first thing you do is abrogate democracy. Then you look after the interests of the insurers. Then you dole out contracts and turn the reconstruction into as efficient a business as you possibly can.

Serves to remind us what NeoLiberalism is: "Neoliberalism is a philosophy which construes profit making as the essence of democracy and consuming as the only operable form of citizenship. It also provides a rationale for a handful of private interests to control as much as possible of social, economic, and political life in order to maximize their personal profit. Neoliberalism is marked by a shift from the manufacturing to the service sector, the rise of temporary and part-time work, growth of the financial sphere and speculative activity, the spread of mass consumerism, the commodification of practically everything.

Neoliberalism combines free market ideology with the privatization of public wealth, the elimination of the social state and social protections, and the deregulation of economic activity. Core narratives of neoliberalism are: privatization, deregulation, commodification, and the selling off of state functions. Neoliberalism advocates lifting the government oversight of free enterprise/trade thereby not providing checks and balances to prevent or mitigate social damage that might occur as a result of the policy of “no governmental interference”; eliminating public funding of social services; deregulating governmental involvement in anything that could cut into the profits of private enterprise; privatizing such enterprises as schools, hospitals, community-based organizations, and other entities traditionally held in the public trust; and eradicating the concept of “the public good” or “community” in favor of “individual responsibility.”

It is a form of terrorism because it abstracts economics from ethics and social costs, makes a mockery of democracy, works to dismantle the welfare state, thrives on militarization, undermines any public sphere not governed by market values, and transforms people into commodities. Neoliberalism’s rigid emphasis on unfettered individualism, competitiveness and flexibility displaces compassion, sharing and a concern for the welfare of others. In doing so, it dissolves crucial social bonds and undermines the profound nature of social responsibility and its ensuing concern for others. In removing individuals from broader social obligations, it not only tears up social solidarities, it also promotes a kind of individualism that is almost pathological in its disdain for public goods, community, social provisions, and public values. Given its tendency to instrumentalize knowledge, it exhibits mistrust for thoughtfulness, complexity, and critical dialogue and in doing so contributes to a culture of stupidity and cruelty in which the dominant ethic is organized around the discourse of war and a survival of the fittest mentality. Neoliberalism is the antithesis of democracy.

Do you believe that neo-liberalism is compatible with some of the more traditional civic and social ethos expounded by more traditional liberal advocates of higher education? If so how, if not, why not?

No, neoliberalism represents a break with older forms of liberalism because it completely abrogates the social contract and leaves no room for meaningful social relationships. Its project has nothing to do with education and everything to do with training."

Some more on NeoLiberalism: "Easily the most important development of "late monopoly capitalism" is the triumph of the rentiers or the absentee owners, as Veblen called them. These people are less "entreprenuers" than economic barons. They call themselves "venture capitalists," "investment bankers," "hedge fund managers," "brokers" and "financial analysts." But the term "bankster" is as good a descriptor as any other, as it captures the predatory venality of what is essentially organized criminality. As a political force, the banksters rule the realm through a combination of graft, propaganda, legalized extortion and outright thievery. As creditors, they have made "serfs" out of millions with their insidious usurious policies. As legal activists, they have manipulated the tax codes to engross a larger share of social wealth. As ideologues, they have pushed the view that government indebtedness, rather than unemployment, is the true measure of "crisis." And as class warriors, they are currently using the big stick of "austerity" to smash the welfare state.

The "financialization" of capitalism is a catastrophic turn. In many ways, it is the institutionalization of barbarism. When "austerity" is the ideal, it becomes normal: to see people homeless on the streets; to see the elderly working in menial jobs when they ought to be comfortably retired; to see children going hungry; to see young people without prospects, crushed by debt; to see poverty "feminized" as families collapse, or never get going, under the strain; to see people die prematurely for want of health care; to see crime rampant, as social bonds wither; to see "tribalism" return in sinister forms, as people turn to "race," "nation" and "religion" in search of authentic identity; to see addiction grow apace; to see the general spread of mindlesssness and meaninglessness as "the market" colonizes every social space. We are already experiencing many of these social pathologies. It's an open question whether a society of this nature has any real future."